Down memory lane or down the lane in Pune where my granny and grandpa used to stay in a nice cosy hacienda or more kind off a rowhouse with its very own outhouse
The fruit bearing trees of chickoo or sapota and Peru or Guava and Amba or Mango and Tutti or Blueberry used to sway and play in the open air and the breeze and nothing more be said of the idyllic surrounding
Lemon grass was abundant and so many leafy vegetables had made this place their playground with us as the major benefactors and parasites :-)
There was something distinct about the place and something that made the place the sanctum sanctorum of that area with all the humility and modesty put together
The place wasnt big but then the hearts accomodated any amount of people thrust within that surface area
It was always a camaraderie of sorts with relatives flocking from all across the places and one united sole body having a whale of a time.
Whether it was a festival or an event of sorts or a summer vacation or any other string of holidays
The sitting on the steps of the backdoor in the morning with my cuppa tea or coffee and just being there to watch....did I say watch....hear the elusive cuckoo...or an indian woodpecker going berserk on a piece of his favourite tree...or just Jumbo-Bruno-Russam bhobo[Russi]-Babban-Teddy-Mona-Sona-Chottu giving way to their youthful joys
The proper nouns are all the pets who were part of our family and all of them some time or the other had made their presence felt and embellished the beauty of the place
The night used to be a clear sky dotted with small illuminated spots ..some forming the Ursa Major others just about sparkling themselves to glory but all visible and clear
The vantage point was a soft watered green patch or we should honour it with the term lawn and which let us have our dinner out in the open whenever we wanted to with our pets nearby and the world a much better place,then.
The rain used to clear the air and sometimes put the icing on the cake or the leaves with pearls of wisdom or beauty to enhance the scenery
The frogs used to come out in all their teeming numbers to greet the water sent from Heaven and I used to hmmmmm.....collect the small ones and put them in water filled small transparent tins
By the end of the season I used to have almost 20 to 30 such tins containing some 150 odd small frogs and I used to let them out just at the end of my stay and they used to go helter skelter like wildebeest migration
There was a place nay a monument for us called as Tulsi Vrindavan bang opposite my ganny's kitchen window where we could sit and get bitten with red army ants :-) or rather sit and eat and dine
Watering plants and trees was my favourite passion and it gave me a psychological healing whence I did that and no I never spoke to the plants or trees but then there was an equation which no Maths can understand
Thud! the sound or the very feeling of that sound was always associated with the first ripe mango kissing Mother Earth and Newton's Third Law had me bringing it to my grandpa and grandma
The joy of holding a newborn!
Then once I remember we had a bumper crop of nearly 269 mangoes with me and my cousins picking the high ones and low ones with equal gusto
The feeling cannot be described but then all of us sitting in one room having the produce brought about by concerted efforts care and love was tremendous
If the morning was characterised by an early climb up the Fergusson hill or the Symbiosis Hill or the BMCC hill , then the early evening was marked by a dip in the Tilak Tank a natural sulphur infested swimming pool which had a potential of reaching epic or olympic proportions
Bicycle or a cycle which is the most nondescript vehicle one can have used to be one of the most sought after vehicle or bike then
The roads were narrow , the lanes were beaten paths or trodden paths some of them being de facto avenues [trees on both sides of the lane] and the number of cars were PP FIATs or none ; so the going was never tough nor the vehicle :-)
It was always my endeavour to go out to Kamala Nehru Park or just walk to Deccan Gymkhana or just walk from the BMCC side onwards to Vaishali Hotel
I wish to write more ...but then that would be editing my memories
The Pune I knew is now unknown broken apart ravaged terrorised by the noises of pollution
